Some venting about recent sleep issues - likely a result of persistent life situation issues - and thoughts about my current game dev project, Dreamons, some old GBC Legend of Zelda games, and the Netflix adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. READ MORE
Am I onto something with this idea that combines several different ones from the past few months?? Dreamons: A game in which you explore dreamscapes as a customisable avatar to tame humanoid - but with psychedelic aesthetics - dreamons to save people from their mental distress. READ MORE
This... still unnamed side project thing is a game about converting and collecting people, but to what degree should they be unique people rather than collectible types? Should it be about collecting a silly gang of archetypes, or about finding your ~soulmate~?? READ MORE
While waiting on mental health treatment to prepare myself for putting myself out into online communities to promote Atonal Dreams, I've been wondering whether to work on Dreamons as a single-player Pokemon clone you can start a game of and just play within minutes without investing into some grand story... READ MORE
Ugh, yet another week where I've made no worthwhile progress on game dev projects, largely due to frustrations about the mental health 'help' I've been getting. READ MORE
I spent this week trying to tackle some things I'd been avoiding, including posting my music on YouTube, which I've finally started doing after talking about that for years!! I also spent a lot of time both on and waiting for phone calls. READ MORE
How's your first week of 2023 been?? My mental state's improved a bit, but I've only touched Atonal Dreams briefly. I should post on Reddit about it soon; I altered ∞ its Steam page ∞ a bit for that. Also, some thoughts about a side project I've been working on, the game Child of Light, and are you worried about AI too? READ MORE
So how's your whole Christmas/end-of-year period been? I spent at least a week - starting from Christmas Day - alone, in bed, so depressed I could barely even move. So that was fun!! Have I ever mentioned that I'm mentally ill before? What, in most of the blog posts I've written this year, you say?? I've at least made stuff every month despite it, though slower than I'd like. READ MORE
A second post this week with some thoughts about art I drew a few days ago, and the kind of feedback artists hope for when showing other people the fruits of their hard work. READ MORE
This week, I've seen the light at the end of the long tunnel I've been frustratingly stuck in for the past several weeks, and have been preparing to face the promotion stuff I've been avoiding. READ MORE
I've finally implemented the revisions to this website that have taken far longer than they really should have done! Am I presenting my game and myself in an appropriate way, though? Also, Pokemon Violet. READ MORE
I finally got around to playing this game, and I want to write about some things I noticed in the first hour or two of gameplay and how they compare to concerns I've had about Atonal Dreams! READ MORE
This week, I made some Atonal Dreams improvements (mostly) based on feedback from the previous test, and intended to post about it on Reddit, but... am I too burned out? Should I focus on stuff like porting my old games first?? Am I just making up excuses to avoid doing something I have a strong trauma-related aversion towards??? READ MORE
I did very little this week - other than compile a list of tasks based on feedback from testers of the third alpha run of Atonal Dreams - because I had another MRI scan to check if my brain cancer has returned! READ MORE
I announced the start of the third alpha test of Atonal Dreams on Monday... but so far only one person has provided feedback. It's discouraging, but I blame myself! READ MORE
Another busy week! Alpha Test 3 will start next week, if you're interested in volunteering to help with that! I also worked a little bit on the Belief side-project thing I started recently. READ MORE
I recently finished the Live A Live Remake... but barely understood its mechanics, as has been the case with pretty much all RPGs I've played in the past. Annoying! Tutorials are the norm for modern games, and here's an overwhelming barrage of images showing all of the tutorials Atonal Dreams includes to hopefully explain its mechanics in a more satisfying way. But are they too much?? Not clear enough?!? I'd value your input! READ MORE
I spent this week revising Atonal Dreams to use the new elements, and I had the most productivity with and confidence about the project I've had in a long time! READ MORE
Last week, I wrote about an idea I'd had for combining the elements and runes in Atonal Dreams, and how I'd been experimenting with a side project - essentially a remake of my old 'Belief' project from late 2019 - to get a feel for whether or not the change would work. I've spent this week working away at that project, so I want to talk about it a bit! READ MORE
Inspiration is a double-edged sword! Should a seemingly good, new idea be pursued if it'd require some steps back to do so? Or should the current path be doggedly stuck to because that's the only way to reach the end?? READ MORE
Typically, RPG spells create flashy particle effects when used, and I've been putting off adding proper ones to the skills in Atonal Dreams. So I finally got around to that this week! READ MORE
WELL THIS WEEK I COULDN'T DO WORK BECAUSE MY DOG ATE ATONAL DREAMS AND-... Or no, gasp, I actually did get stuff done this week! I've been revising dialogue scenes based on tester feedback... though everything continues to take so damn long! READ MORE
Ehh, I've had a weird week. Still a lot of tension and paralysis due to indecisiveness or a general feeling of crisis about the life path I've found myself on, but I feel it's at least started calming maybe after getting - and beginning to act on - some feedback about Atonal Dreams? READ MORE
I've spent this week waiting for feedback for the Atonal Dreams Alpha... or rather, that feels like an excuse to shirk work more than anything, as I find the mere thought of the next big steps - or the alternative severe life changes if this won't work out - so distressing. I should try to play a game for the first time in ages to destress and reinspire myself, but I've been struggling to decide which one! READ MORE
Gasp! I'm ready to start the next Atonal Dreams alpha test next week! Also I've maybe revised Alora Fane's logo and cosmology a bit? And a brief look at another 'solo' dev's Kickstarter, which evoked very mixed feelings in me... READ MORE
I'm at the point with Atonal Dreams now where I can almost start the next round of alpha testing. I know I've been saying that for probably months, but while then it was on the horizon, now I'm standing on the doorstep. I've got badly burned out getting here, though, so I've also been recovering a bit by working on a side project, Mentales! READ MORE
I set up my new PC at long last, I'm still working on story decisions - including some fast/dream travel 'flowerbeds' - and it's a shame people aren't more receptive to - or even aware of - my post-MARDEK work! READ MORE
Work on the gameplay mechanics/game loop is essentially done now, so I just need to refine the story a bit before doing the next alpha test! Does this new symbol for the Passion element look inappropriately lewd to you?? READ MORE
In case you don't already know, Chrono Cross is a PS1 game that's a sequel (kind of) to the SNES classic Chrono Trigger, which just got a re-release/remaster on the Switch. I just played about an hour of it, and wanted to write out some thoughts, mainly about the battle system. The remaster also includes a short text-based prequel (again, kind of) called Radical Dreamers, which I played and also want to write out some thoughts about! READ MORE
I'm still going! Potion levels! Uncertainty about how to transition between the nightmare intro and Sprouting Isle, and how the world map should work! Chrono Cross remaster! READ MORE
I spent this week working my way through a to-do list of tedious tasks for Atonal Dreams! Here are a couple of the more interesting additions. READ MORE
I wasn't able to focus on Atonal Dreams this week, but I did make some maybe interesting progress on this side project, Mentales! Also, I've probably got COVID now. READ MORE
I've been writing some dialogue scenes this week! Also my new PC arrived! And a bit of a follow-up about the Ukraine war and the post I wrote about that recently. READ MORE
There are a whole lot of aspects of game dev that I get excited about and enjoy! But there are so many facets to it that I suppose it wouldn't be possible to be in love with every single thing I have to do. I tend to put off the undesirable tasks as much as possible, but I'm at the point now where they're pretty much all that's left at the bottom of the task barrel before I can run the next alpha... so I'm having to endure the gruelling process of working through them. READ MORE
I turned 34 today. I've been assuming I'd be writing a moody post reflecting on how my life's hardly where I expected it to be at this unpleasantly ancient age, but I didn't expect I'd be talking about the threat of nuclear war! What a gift all THAT news has been!! READ MORE
I composed two new pieces of battle music this week... which I can't show off due to technical issues with my composing program. I'm also wondering about other ways of talking about my progress that might be more noticed... READ MORE
Atonal Dreams was meant as a short standalone prequel to a longer reimagining of the MARDEK story - itself a reworking of another project I'd started on earlier - which I intended to finish within six months to a year. It's been either about a year and a half, two years, or two years and four months since I started - depending on where the start is considered to be - and the finish line still seems distant. In this obnoxiously long, image-heavy post, I want to look back over the entire development journey, to see how the game has evolved each month. READ MORE
Some more work on the music system this week! Also some plans for stuff I want to write before the end of the year, looking back on progress and decisions and such. READ MORE
A (relatively) quick one this week! I've been working more on the music system, which involved making decisions about the 'intensity' system that alters the background music and adds multipliers to damage delivered. READ MORE
This week, I worked on combining three separate music systems in Atonal Dreams' code, but didn't do as much as I'd like due to a distracting dog! READ MORE
I'm still working away at stitching together the intro sections of Atonal Dreams, and also this week I started on a side project based on Alora Fane: Creation! READ MORE
I've made some decent progress this week towards FINALLY moving beyond the nightmare intro and combining that with the tutorial island I already mostly made months ago. I've changed a lot with the game's fundamental mechanics since I last worked with it though, so I'm having to clean up a whole lot of stuff to get it all working. Let's look at some screenshots! READ MORE
I've been very bad mentally these past few days! I want to distract myself by writing out another possible side project idea: a remake of sorts of Alora Fane: Creation, in which you can build your own little quests for others to play... READ MORE
A long one this week! For Atonal Dreams, I made Savitr's flying figmon steed, and the beginnings of a world map you'd use for fast travel. I also want to talk about an idea I have for a potential smaller side project: a simple roguelike virtual pet thing... READ MORE
I've almost finished the intro bit in Collie's Psychepelago!! Took long enough... I need to figure out exactly how it ends and ties to the beginning bits I had from before, though... READ MORE
I've got a few things I want talk about in this post: the hospital appointment wasn't as anxiety-inducing as usual; I'm wondering (not for the first time) whether to make a virtual pet mobile app; I'm wondering how to restructure my days to get more done; and a note about computer stuff! READ MORE
I got back to work on Atonal Dreams this week, which has been... mixed. A slow, frustrating start, and then various obstacles got in the way, so I wasn't able to get as much done as I wanted (a recurring story, that). One big recurring obstacle was my computer being even laggier than usual, so I've been thinking yet again about replacing it! I'm clueless about hardware though... READ MORE
I've been experiencing severe burnout this week, so I've only done a bit on some dialogue scenes for the intro. I'll probably take a couple of weeks off to recharge and do some other stuff... READ MORE
I worked through some not-very-exciting but necessary details this week. I composed some dynamic music for the first bit of the intro, added a simple custom scripting/events system and rewrote some previous code to allow me to add events fairly easily, and I finally got around to making a model for the battle arena for Collie's Psychepelago. READ MORE
It's already September! How did THAT happen?? I've been working on Atonal Dreams for over a year... So much for the hope I could start and finish in 6 months like I did with Memody: Sindrel Song! READ MORE
I did a lot this week! I made two new monsters, came up with an idea - mementomes - that solves some uncertainties, and improved the Lore section! READ MORE
I mostly finished the intro I was working on, but it's not what I want it to be! I've come up with some revisions though which should make for a better world and story... READ MORE
I've almost finished the intro, but not quite! One thing I've yet to do is finalise a design for 'Splendid Savitr'. Also, I started playing Kingdom Hearts this week, which features more frustratingly aimless backtracking than I remember! READ MORE
I spent this week working on the dark dream intro, though it's not finished yet! I also spent about a day fiddling around with a side project based on Belief - a game I worked on briefly a while back - for the fun of it. READ MORE
I refreshed my memory about the story, wrote out some themes I'm intending for the narrative to explore, and wrote a potential script for the intro that I'm still not sure about! I also experimented with a suggested way of integrating music into battles, though I'm not sure about that either since it doesn't work with the existing battle track (included here)! READ MORE
Lots of indecisiveness this week about whether characters should wield musical instruments, and how Collie is portrayed in the new dream intro! READ MORE
I made a model of a nightmarish Beast this week, but I'm still really tired and unproductive so I'll probably take next week off to try and recover a bit. READ MORE
Another disappointingly unproductive week again, sorry! Here's me venting about that a bit. Also some thoughts about the replies to last week's post regarding what a 'standard RPG' is. READ MORE
I didn't do as much as I'd like this week due to a bunch of factors, so I worked on trying to address those. I also (mostly) made the dream versions of Collie and Savitr, I've included a video showing a basic battle to hopefully clarify some stuff I've previously only written about, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts about a question: What, to you, is a 'standard RPG'? READ MORE
Last week, I talked about removing the vestigial resonars, and I've finalised that decision now. Since having neither a weapon or shield felt too empty, I've replaced the resonars with two new equippable items: an 'amulet' on the right hand for 'attacking', and a 'bracelet' on the left for bracing against incoming blows. I also designed two new monsters to replace the old skills! READ MORE
A long one this week! I've been thinking I should trim out some vestigial features to focus more on the monster-skills mechanic, plus some replies to things people said in comments on last week's post (since I can't reply to them all individually!). READ MORE
Another productive week! I'm almost at the point where I can update the game for a new test run; I just need to tidy up a few bugs and things now. I have some questions related to MARDEK and games dev in general that I'd like to hear your thoughts about this time! READ MORE
It's the end of the first week that people spent alpha testing what I've made so far of Atonal Dreams! I've given out 18 keys, and got feedback of very varying lengths from 10 of those people so far. There's a lot to sort through! Here are some of the things that people have reported, and what I intend to do about them. READ MORE
The alpha test of Atonal Dreams has begun! Ten people got keys yesterday afternoon, and about half have given feedback already. If you're one of my Diamond-tier patrons and are still interested in testing, you've not missed your chance. I'll use this (day late) post to summarise some of the major points of feedback that I'll need to address before moving on, as well as a gameplay revision I've been thinking about myself for a while. READ MORE
I've started putting Atonal Dreams on Steam so then I can start accumulating wishlists and run an alpha test before moving forward, but it's tough knowing how to present it, especially without feedback... READ MORE
I updated the website this week; I'll need to put Atonal Dreams on Steam next week, though I also have my next brain scan on Wednesday. This week's album contains some tracks I don't think I've ever released anywhere before! READ MORE
A bunch of stuff got in the way this week, but I'm probably ready to start the alpha test phase of Atonal Dreams. Here's what I need to do next week to get to that point. READ MORE
I've just played about 50 minutes of this game, and I want to write out some thoughts about how some design aspects compare to Atonal Dreams. READ MORE
I hoped to have Atonal Dreams ready for alpha testing this week, though depression got in the way of that. I've almost got there though; just a few more tweaks. Also another album of non-game music, from the same time I composed the OST for MARDEK. READ MORE
I was hoping to have Atonal Dreams ready for some kind of alpha test by the end of this week, but frustratingly that's not happened yet because there's so much to do! Also, this week's Music Album contains music from Deliverance (and Fig Hunter and some old stuff)!!!1 READ MORE
I've mostly been doing cleanup/tweaks this week, polishing, trying to get the game to a point where I can show the early section to some alpha testers, but everything takes a long time! While tidying up some gameplay mechanics, I made a change to how the 'arousal' stat works, which I want to talk about here. Also, another music album! READ MORE
The main thing I want to show this week is a video of Atonal Dreams' intro bit in preparation for a maybe-soon demo, which I'd very much like to hear your thoughts about! I also added a minimap, and uploaded the OSTs of two Raider games as the Album of the Week. READ MORE
2021's got off to a decent start, productivity-wise! I composed three pieces of music for Atonal Dreams! I've also added an additional album of my old music to the Bandcamp page I set up recently, which is something I intend to make a weekly habit of. READ MORE
Well, we survived 2020 somehow! Or at least some of us did, myself surprisingly included. I've also been quite productive this year, so - as is my tradition - I shall look back on all the stuff I've made here! READ MORE
I haven't done much this week, annoyingly! So here's some rambling about sexual objectification again (yay), a revised roadmap for tasks I've done and still need to do, and some thoughts about scripting snags re character psychology that I'm currently in the process of working through. READ MORE
More script work! I've planned some sections in which pairs of characters dream together, during which their appearances change based on how one of the dreamers subconsciously perceives themselves and the other. Interesting stuff... though again I've been wondering about the concept of sexual objectification and what people perceive as that. READ MORE
More work on the script - and the tool I made for organising/writing it - this week! I've sorted out all the scenes, though I still need to script them! Pierce might have an 'imaginary' girlfriend rather than a Mumsie now... READ MORE
I've been trying to sort out the whole Divine Dreams + Belief + Atonal Dreams story in a way that makes sense to me! I've also come up with some symbols for important concepts during the planning process. READ MORE
I've cleaned up the intro cutscene a (little) bit by adding or changing some structural stuff, plus I've planned the story as a series of dialogue scenes. Next I should write the script in its entirety, though what about the demo I keep teasing?!? READ MORE
I've spent the past couple of weeks looking into what the most sensible next steps might be, but it's still annoyingly unclear. Here's what I'm going to do next anyway, though. READ MORE
This week, I've rethought how magic works, and have added an additional form of progression. I think I'll stop fiddling around with the battle mechanics now and devote the next couple of weeks to figuring out how best to start getting some players involved! READ MORE
I've been adding some final features and tweaks to Atonal Dreams' battle system, with the intention of having something playable that I can show off to get some opinions about before proceeding. I'm not actually sure where to release that, though; I've seen a few conflicting things! READ MORE
I'm really close now to the point where I can release a playable demo of Atonal Dreams... which should be exciting, but I've had a lot of days recently - today included - where I struggle to get to work due to worries about the waning interest in this blog and - presumably by extension - the game. READ MORE
I took half of last week off development, and intended to get back to it mentally refreshed at the start of this week. I'm definitely not mentally refreshed though! READ MORE
I'm depressed and unmotivated. Again!! However, it's interesting seeing how much actually has changed for the better since another miserable post 3 months ago... READ MORE
I've done a lot of different things on Atonal Dreams this week! I've added weapon functionality for Pierce and Ossoum, I've started building the island the game takes place on, and I've composed music for all four playable characters. READ MORE
After weeks of wondering and planning, I feel I've got the ball rolling on Atonal Dreams now! I've made an info page and a roadmap to explain what the game is and when it might be finished, as well as some new systems that I just added this week! READ MORE
I've made models for these Atonal Dreams party members, and a short video scene thing of them interacting! I've also got a plan for when I might be able to finish Atonal Dreams by. READ MORE
I've spent this week doing more story planning for this now-actually-named thing, Atonal Dreams, which has included drawing final designs of all the major characters. This eccentric bunch are the four playable ones! READ MORE
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